Supreme Court Protects Violent Video Games

WASHINGTON (CBSMiami.com) – The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that violent video game sales can’t be banned by any state.

The case revolved around games like Grand Theft Auto, which has had one version based on the city of Miami and another called Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City, which caused controversy in Miami’s own Liberty City when it was released.

The Court partially justified their decision by noting that fairy tales and other children’s stories often have plenty of violence in them and no one has banned those stories, or sought to ban them.

“Certainly the books we give children to read—or read to them when they are younger—contain no shortage of gore. Grimm’s Fairy Tales, for example, are grim indeed,” wrote Justice Antonin Scalia for the majority. “As her just deserts for trying to poison Snow White, the wicked queen is made to dance in red hot slippers ‘till she fell dead on the floor, a sad example of envy and jealousy.’”

The original ban that sparked the case was in California. The 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals had previously said the law violated minor’s rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments.

The court’s decision gave cover to the video game industry which would have had to either redesign some games or not sell some violent video games in certain states.

In 2010, video game sales brought in $18 billion; and more than 46 million Americans own at least one video game system.